Alfie
Cilla Black : 1966
Alfie was the main character in the film of the same name, played by Michael Caine.  This song was not in the UK release of the film, as it was written by Burt Bacharach as a promotional tool for the film, but the Cilla Black recording became a top 10 hit in the UK.  A version by Cher was used on the closing credits of the American film release.

Arthur Daley ('E's Alright)
The Firm : 1982
Arthur Daley was a wheeler-dealer character in the 1980s hit TV series "Minder", played by George Cole.

Barbarella
Alisha's Attic : 1998
Barbarella was featured in French science-fiction comic books, written by Jean-Claude Forest.  The character was also featured in a film titled "Barbarella", starring Jane Fonda, made 1968.  The story is set in the far future and involves Barbarella travelling to distant galaxies to track down a weapon of mass destruction which might endanger Earth.

Do The Bartman
Simpsons : 1991
Refers to Bart Simpson, the son in the TV cartoon series "The Simpsons".  Starting in 1989 as a series in its own right, and still running in 2013, it features a working-class family and the events that shape their lives.  Bart Simpson is the only son in the family of five.

Captain Beaky
Keith Michell : 1980
Captain Beaky (and His Band) is a character in two albums of poetry written by Jeremy Lloyd, and set to music by Jim Parker.  The track about Captain Beaky was read by Keith Michell, whilst other showbiz personalities spoke the other tracks on the albums.  The albums were issued in 1977 and 1980; both being released on CD in 2002.

Captain Kremmen
Kenny Everett : 1977
Captain Kremmen was a space-travelling character in a science fiction radio serial, invented and voiced by broadcaster Kenny Everett during the 1970s-1980s.  An animated cartoon of Kremmen was also made, released in 1980.

Charlie Brown
Coasters : 1959
Charlie Brown is a character in the syndicated newspaper strip cartoon "Peanuts".  The cartoon was devised by Charles Schultz and ran from 1950 to 2000.

Cinderella, Rockefeller
Ester and Abi Ofarim : 1968
Cinderella
Lemonescent : 2003
Cinderella is a children's fairy tale character.  She was used as a skivvy by her sisters, but with the help of her fairy godmother, she was rescued by Prince Charming.  The origin of the story is unknown, but it was included in a collection of tales by Charles Perrault in 1697.  The story is a regular in British pantomime.

Dirty Harry
Gorillaz : 2005                       
Dirty Harry's Revenge
Adam F feat Beenie Man : 2002
Dirty Harry was a maverick police detective played by Clint Eastwood in the movie "Dirty Harry" in 1971, and in four sequels through to the 1980s.

Doctor Who
Mankind : 1978
Doctor Who is a Timelord and space traveller in a BBC science-fiction TV series that began in 1963 and continued until 1989 when production ceased.  The programme was revived in 2005 and annual series continue to run.  From 1963 to 2014, twelve actors have played the part of Doctor Who.

Don Juan
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich : 1969
Don Juan is a playboy and womaniser, first appearing in a play written by the Spaniard Tirso de Molina in 1630.  In 1787 the story was made into the opera "Don Giovanni" by Mozart.  Many other play and film versions have appeared, including the movie "Don Juan De Marco", starring Johnny Depp, made 1995.                        

Don Quixote
Nik Kershaw : 1985
Don Quixote is a troubled character in a novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes in 1605.   In 1972 a musical film adaptation based on the story, called "Man of La Mancha", starring Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren, was released.                             

Dracula's Tango
Toto Coelo : 1982
Count Dracula is a vampire in the horror novel "Dracula" written in 1897 by Irish author Bram Stoker.  Numerous film and TV adaptations have been made over the years.

Flash
Queen : 1980
Refers to Flash Gordon, the subject of a science-fiction-hero comic strip first published in 1934.  The 1980 recording was the title track for a live-action feature-length film, for which the members of Queen wrote and performed the score.

Goodnight Mrs Flintstone
Piltdown Men : 1961                                       
(Meet) The Flintstones
BC-52s : 1994
The Flintstones was a cartoon TV series made in the USA from 1960 to 1966.  The stories revolved around a stone-age working class couple, Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and their friends Barney and Betty Rubble.  The 1994 hit was the title track for a live-action film version of the TV cartoon.

Freddy Kreuger
Reuben : 2004
Freddy Kreuger is the main character in the horror movie "A Nightmare On Elm Street", 1984, and later sequels.

Goldfinger
Shirley Bassey : 1964
Goldfinger was the villain in the James Bond movie of the same name.  This recording was used for the opening credits of the film.

Hercules
Frankie Vaughan : 1962
Hercules is a Roman and Greek (Heracles in Greek) mythological hero.  He is one of the sons of the god Zeus, and is noted for his enormous strength and adventures, including "The Twelve Labours of Hercules".

Inspector Gadget
Kartoon Krew : 1985
Inspector Gadget is a cartoon TV series that features the adventures of a clumsy, dim-witted cyborg detective named inspector Gadget – a human being with various bionic gadgets built into his body.  It originally ran from 1983 to 1986, but it continues to air successfully in re-runs around the world.

King Midas in Reverse
Hollies : 1967
The legend of King Midas first appeared in ancient Greece around 800 B.C.  The story tells how Midas is granted a wish by a god, and being a greedy man, he asks that everything he touches is turned to gold.  Midas had not thought through the consequences, as when he goes to eat food it turns to metal, and when he embraces his daughter she becomes a gold statue.

Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)
Connie Stevens : 1960
The character Kookie appeared in the American, private detective TV series "77 Sunset Strip", made from 1958 to 1964. Kookie was frequently seen combing his hair – hence the song title.

Lily The Pink
Scaffold : 1968
Lily the Pink is a fictitious character, based on the real person Lydia Pinkham, who marketed a herbal remedy during the late 19th century in the United States.  The Scaffold song is an update of the American folk song called "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham". The lyrics of both songs celebrate the "medicinal compound" invented by Lily the Pink/Lydia Pinkham, and, in each verse, chronicle some extraordinary cure which it has effected.

Mr Blobby
Mr Blobby : 1993
Mr Blobby was a character in the Noel Edmonds BBC TV show "Noel's House Party", which ran for several series on Saturday evenings in the 1990s.  Blobby was a large pink figure with yellow spots all over - in reality, a plastic costume with an actor inside.

Mrs Robinson
Simon & Garfunkel : 1968
Mrs Robinson was a character, played by Anne Bancroft, in the film "The Graduate", for which Paul Simon had been asked to write songs.

Mulder and Scully
Catatonia : 1998
Mulder and Scully were FBI agents in the science-fiction TV series "The X-Files".  The two, Fox Mulder played by David Duchovny and Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson, investigated paranormal activity and supposed alien invasions.  The X-Files ran for nine seasons from 1993 to 2002.

Oliver Twist
D'banj : 2012
Oliver Twist is the main character in the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.  Oliver was an orphaned young boy who ended up in a gang of young street urchins, controlled by an older man called Fagin.  The story was made into a successful stage musical, called “Oliver!”, by Lionel Bart in 1960.

Phantom Of The Opera
Sarah Brightman & Steve Harley : 1986
The Phantom of the Opera was a horror novel, written in 1910 by Frenchman, Gaston Leroux.  The story reached a major audience in 1986 when it was made into a highly successful stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  In 2004 a film adaptation of the musical was released.

Pied Piper
Crispian St. Peters : 1966
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a legend first documented in 13th century Germany.  The story concerns the piper who the town hired to remove an infestation of rats.  This he did by charming them away by playing his magic flute as he danced away from town.  When the town refused to pay him for his work, he lured away the town's children, using the same method.  It is thought that this is a metaphor for the loss of many of Hamelin's children for reasons that are unknown.

Prince Charming
Adam and The Ants : 1981
Prince Charming features in the children's fairy tale "Cinderella".  Cinderella was used as a skivvy by her sisters, but with the help of her fairy godmother, she was rescued by Prince Charming.  The origin of the story is unknown, but it was included in a collection of tales by Charles Perrault in 1697.  The story is a regular in British pantomime.

Li'l Red Riding Hood
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs : 1968
Little Red Riding Hood is a children's fairy tale concerning a young girl and a wolf.  The wolf conspires to attack Red Riding Hood, but she is rescued by a lumberjack.  The story is attributed to Frenchman Charles Perrault (see also "Cinderella") in the late 1600s, although the basis of the tale goes back to much earlier times.  The song above takes the wolf's viewpoint, suggesting he is looking for love not blood.                           

Road Runner
Junior Walker and The All-Stars : 1969
Roadrunner
Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers : 1977
Road Runner is the subject of a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon series that began in 1948.  The bird's adversary was Wile E. Coyote.  In reality, a road runner is a ground-dwelling cuckoo, native to the USA south-western desert lands.

Robin Hood
Dick James; Gary Miller : 1956
Robin (The Hooded Man)
Clannad : 1984
Robin hood is an English folk hero and outlaw who claimed to "rob from the rich and give to the poor".   The story may have been based on a real person, but the activities are largely fiction.  The origins are unknown, but the story was first published in the mid-15th century.  The songs above were both themes for British TV series running at their respective times.

Romeo and Juliet
Dire Straits : 1981
Romeo and Juliet are characters in the Shakespeare play of the same name, written in the 1590s.  Based on earlier Italian works, the story revolves around the two lovers from rival families, with tragic consequences.

Rupert
Jackie Lee : 1971
Refers to Rupert Bear, a check-trousered, scarf-wearing bear character who appears in a Daily Express newspaper strip cartoon.  Rupert first appeared in the paper 1920, and continues to the present.  A made-for-TV cartoon series was made in 1969, and the above song is the theme from the series.  Further TV cartoons were shown 1985-1988 and 1991-1997.

Scarlett O'Hara
Jet Harris & Tony Meehan : 1963
Scarlett O'Hara is a character in the novel "Gone With The Wind".  The book was written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936, and is set in Georgia, USA during the American civil war era,   The story was famously made into a film in 1939, starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.

Scooby Doo
Dweeb : 1997
Scooby Doo (different song)
J Majic and Wickaman : 2004
Scooby Doo is a Great Dane dog, who appears in a USA TV cartoon series of the same name, which has run from 1969 to the present.  With his human friends he helps solve various supernatural mysteries.

Snoopy vs the Red Baron
Royal Guardsmen : 1967
Snoopy vs the Red Baron
Hotshots : 1973
Snoopy is the dog in the syndicated newspaper strip cartoon "Peanuts".  The cartoon was devised by Charles Schultz and ran from 1950 to 2000.

Speedy Gonzales
Pat Boone : 1962
Speedy Gonzales is a Mexican mouse in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon series.  The first cartoon appeared in 1953.  The mouse was often pitted against Sylvester the cat, normally seen with the bird Tweetie Pie.  Gonzales was voiced by Mel Blanc in the cartoons and on the Pat Boone song.

Steptoe and Son at Buckingham Palace
Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett :  1963
Steptoe and Son were rag-and-bone men in a BBC TV sitcom made during the 1960s.

O Superman
Laurie Anderson : 1981
Superman
Stereophonics : 2005
Superman is a superhero who rights wrongs and saves people from near-death situations.  He can fly, has x-ray vision, and enormous strength.  He first appeared in Action Comics in 1938.  Numerous film versions of his exploits have been made over the decades since.

Tarzan Boy
Baltimora : 1985
The character Tarzan first appeared in a magazine story in 1912, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Tarzan was "The King of the Jungle" - a British orphan who was raised by apes in the jungle.  26 novels were written by Burroughs, and numerous film interpretations have been made.  The most famous actor to play the part of Tarzan was Johnny Weissmuller from 1932 to 1946.

Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!
Teletubbies : 1997
The Teletubbies were four multi-coloured characters in the BBC TV series of the same name which ran from 1997 to 2001, and aimed at pre-school children.  The programmes won several awards and were shown in the USA.

Tom Sawyer
Rush : 1981
Tom Sawyer is the main character in the Mark Twain novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", published in 1876.  The book follows the adventures of the young boy Tom, growing up by the Mississippi River.  There are two sequels and three published but unfinished works.

Uncle Sam
Madness : 1985
Uncle Sam is the personification of the United States.  It is thought by some that the character is based on real person Samuel Wilson.  He supplied food to the US army during the war of 1812, and the soldiers who opened the containers, which were marked "US", described the contents as gifts from Uncle Sam.  This nickname quickly spread, and a cartoonist drew the classic image of Uncle Sam.

Remember You're A Womble
Wombles : 1974
The Wombles, are pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows on Wimbledon Common, London, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways.  The Wombles originally appeared in a series of children's novels from 1968, written by author Elisabeth Beresford.  In the mid-1970s the BBC broadcast a stop-motion animated TV series featuring their adventures.  A number of spin-off novelty songs also became hits in the British music charts, the songs composed and performed by Mike Batt.